Page 29 - IB MAY 2017

Climate Change
Installation of early war ning system in Tuvalu

light and so forth”.
The ‘Chatty Beetle’ has to be in a
place that is accessible to everybody 24
hours, not in an office where it is locked
outside working hours. It is installed in
the Kaupule (local council) office where
several people can have access. Training
is also an essential part of the installation
and on each of the islands locals have
been trained on how to use the system.
Working closely with the Kaupules on
each of the islands is integral to the
whole installation process and a sus-
tainable method of ensuring the EWS
functionality.
In addition to this, new communica-
tions equipment is being installed in the
Funafuti Met Office and the weather of-
fices on each of the divisions, Northern,
Central and Southern. Data from there
goes to a major processing center in
Australia, Japan and Washington DC.
Tuvalu’s vulnerability to the ocean that aurrounds it and the effects of climate change puts its citizens on full-time alert. Photos: Supplied
For Tauala Katea, Director of Tuvalu
systems for people on the outer islands. the outer islands and Funafuti. Besides Met, the last three years has seen a lot
With extreme weather patterns, intense it being an early warning system it is also of issues in communicating weather
cyclones and changing climate, building a marine grade siren system. Developing information from the outer islands, es-
and strengthening reliable communica- the ‘Chatty Beetle’ began when Schulz pecially from outstations in the North,
tions systems is an integral adaptation was still with the United States Weather Central, and the South. “Our observer
method the country acutely needs. Service and together with a few col- in the out stations reports back every six
“Improving and strengthening commu- leagues, “sat down and put together some hours through the HF radio. But with
nications is crucial to providing backup in ideas to develop a system which would be the old HF radio equipment you couldn’t
case the regular communication systems an early warning system, one guy called communicate well during daytime or at
are out of action or in the middle of the it a ‘heads up’ system to warn people”. nighttime and if there’s an issue with the
night when we need to get an urgent After some tests it was deployed a few main power supply in the outer islands
warning to the islands we can do that years ago in the islands for testing and that can be a really big issue, or the bat-
by the new alarm systems” says Colin they found that it probably was the only tery is flat, these are the difficulties we
Schulz, project engineer and consultant reliable real time solution they had in the face. So the installation of a more reliable
for NAPA 2. “Current weather in each Pacific area and from there it continued technology that can communicate with
island”, he continues “is a very important to evolve. When they started the Tuvalu the outer islands and the Met Office is
part of early warnings looking at devel- project Schulz says they, “realized that now more sustainable”, he says.
oping storms, if there is a storm in the a lot of the islands didn’t have 24 hour With the ‘Chatty Beetle’ passing
area what are the winds speeds, what are contact, they didn’t have a system of information is greatly improved. “For
the parameters of that storm and its im- getting warnings that was reliable. There example”, Katea says, “with tsunami
perative that the weather service get their maybe a telephone perhaps in the island warning, the waves travel within min-
information through not only for storms council’s residence or something like that utes, within hours, so we need to pass
but for the wellbeing of that country”. but if he is not in the office at midnight or the message instantly, straightaway, and
Because of problems in the past and at 2 o’clock in the morning and if there is to the outer islands it is really a big issue
because of poor communications, Schulz a tsunami warning then what do we do? but with this technology all the islands
says “we’re now giving the Tuvalu Met I realized very quickly together with our that have the ‘Chatty Beetle’, the message
Office up to date state of the art system colleagues on the project that we needed can be passed quickly as part of the early
so that they can communicate their a proper alarming system and so that’s warning system and if there is a com-
weather readings and weather informa- what we’ve done. And it is interesting munication breakdown on the Telecom
tion through quickly and reliably”. to know that Tuvalu is the first country network, they can use the chatty beetle
One piece of equipment that was devel- that we’ve got a fully blown alarm system to communicate to the capital”.
oped especially with the islands in mind with sirens. We’ve got the units out in the
is the ‘Chatty Beetle’ a device that uses fields in many places but this is the first n Continued overleaf
text messages to communicate between one we’ve done with a siren, flashing

Islands Business May 2017 29